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After building his fluorescent light bulbrecyclinvg company, H.T.R. Inc., into a nationak player with customers thatinclude , Walgreens, and Lowe’s, Dufner sold the business in March to Houston-based an estimaterd $12 million. H.T.R.’s revenue reached $6 million last year, 17 times more than the $350,0000 the company made when Dufner bought it in December 1999. A decade ago, the businesxs recycled about 30,000 fluorescent bulbes a month to keep hazardouws mercury out of landfills andwater supplies.
That numberd reached about 18 million bulbs a year by the time of the Dufner andRaymond Kohout, his minorituy partner and chief operating officer, decided they neededc to either invest a largd amount of capital to open additional recycling facilitied or find a strategic partner or buyer for theird business. Dufner turned to lifelong friend James Stuart ofin Clayton. Stuarg reached out to contacts atWaste Management, and afterf about a year of talks, he helped broker H.T.R.’s sale. Dufner estimated fluorescent bulb recycling isa $100 millio to $150 million industry.
Analyst Michael Hoffman of in Baltimorwe noted that garbage disposal isa $52 billionj industry and medical waste disposal accounts for another $3 billioh to $4 billion. Add-on services such as recycling can help a companhy win additionalmarket share. “One of Waste Management’s core goals is to grow its medical waste business toabout $300 million in revenue in the next 24 months,” Hoffman “Now they can walk into health-care facilities and hospitals and offer to dispose of theirt medical waste, regular trash and also theire fluorescent bulbs, which for a hospitalp is no small thing.
” Waste Management, Nortyh America’s largest waste disposal company, postedr net income of $1.09 billionh on revenue of $13.4 billion last year and employs about 46,000. Dufner, 54, grew up in Granite City and St. attending and at Carbondale. In 1991, he bought one of the firsg franchises ofEarth City-based Dent Wizard, a compangy that provides paintless dent removal for Dufner moved to Atlanta to run his territory of Georgia and But in 1998, Atlanta-based acquired Dent Wizared and proceeded to buy out its Dufner sold his business for about $5 million, and at age 45 founcd himself looking for a new In 1999, while at the Lake of the Dufner struck up a conversation with an employee of a three-year-old company then based in the small town of Goldenb City in southwest Missouri.
A new federal law regulating the management of waste containing hazardous materialss such as mercury had just gone into but H.T.R.’s 14 investors were short on funde to take advantage of potentialk growth. Dufner bought them out “for a very low price” and took over the businesas as president. Dufner recruited Kohout, a friend who owneed a gun storein St. Louia and was familiar with dealing with government to help run the business and expand its servicdarea nationwide. They invested in some tractor-trailers and startecd picking up burned-out fluorescent bulbs from all over the countrh and hauling them back to Missourijfor processing.
Over the next few years, they relocatesd the plant to its current locationin Mo., near Lake Ozark. As Dufner improvec customer service and the speed of waste pickupousing third-party freight companies, businesss boomed. Beginning in 2003, H.T.R. secured contracts with Wal-Mart to pick up and recycl e used bulbs. Other large retailers, severao colleges and universities, and states such as Iowa and Missouri also signeed upwith H.T.R. All of the materiapl in the bulbs H.T.R. picked up — metal and glass — was recycled.
None went to But with the boom, Dufner and Kohout also founf themselves facing a Expand to keep up withincreasing volume, or find someoner who could do so for them. “Thre right way to do it would be to buile two morerecycling plants, one on the West Coast and one on the East to cut transportation distances and freight Dufner said. “Ray and I can’t be in thre places at one time. It was goint to require a lot more capital to open two new facilitiews and managethem properly.” So who has children ages 3 and 5 with his Renee, decided to look for a buyer last year and eventually struck the deal with Waste Management.
“We thought would make a good fitfor us,” said Rick Cochrane, seniore business director for Waste Management’s WM Lamptracker “Over 70 percent of fluorescent lighting in the country stillk isn’t recycled properly, and that’xs where we think the upside is.” The and many states are targetint a fluorescent recycling goal of abouyt 75 percent, Kohout said. Some 800 million fluorescentt lamps burn outeach year, and now millionas of residential light sockets are also switching from incandescen t to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
Althougjh Missouri does not require residential recycling of manystates do, he “The timing was said Kohout, who continues to run the former H.T.R. operationa within WM Lamptracker. “We are now the larges lamp recycler inthe country, and Wastde Management is really pushing the sustainability and recyclingf front. We’ve had nine years of double-digit and we’ve just gotten started.” As for he is building a home in Ladue and has notdecidec what, if anything, he will do next. “Am I lookingy for something? Possibly, but not necessarily,” Dufnedr said. “That’s how H.T.R.
I wasn’t really looking and then it fell inmy
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
OpenTable to test investors' IPO appetite - Kansas City Business Journal:
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The San Francisco online restaurant reservationj company plans to raise upto $42 millioh with the sale of 3 millionm shares. At the middle of its expected price rangeof $12 to $14 a the company would be valuesd at $281 million. Saled at the company rose 36 percentfto $55.8 million in 2008, a year in whicgh it lost $1.02 million. The company plans to trade on Nasdaq under thesymbol “OPEN" and use the moneyg from the IPO for general corporate purposes and possiblde acquisitions. OpenTable's CEO Jeffrey Jordan was previouslg presidentof , 's (NASDAQ:EBAY) onlinse payment subsidiary. Its venturre backers include Menlo Park-based firms and . The otheer U.S.
company going publicd this weekis , an Austin, Texas, network managementr software maker. It plans to raise up to $139.3 million on the sale of 12.1 million It plans to trade on the New York Stockj Exchange under the symbol SolarWinds competeswith . (NYSE:HPQ) and (NASDAQ:CSCO) by offeringy lower prices tha the valle ysoftware giants. Its sales rose 51 percentf to $93.1 million last year, with net income up 64 percent to $22.3 million. Only three other U.S. companies have gone publi so farin 2009, followinfg a fourth quarter last year in which there were no domesti c IPOs.
The San Francisco online restaurant reservationj company plans to raise upto $42 millioh with the sale of 3 millionm shares. At the middle of its expected price rangeof $12 to $14 a the company would be valuesd at $281 million. Saled at the company rose 36 percentfto $55.8 million in 2008, a year in whicgh it lost $1.02 million. The company plans to trade on Nasdaq under thesymbol “OPEN" and use the moneyg from the IPO for general corporate purposes and possiblde acquisitions. OpenTable's CEO Jeffrey Jordan was previouslg presidentof , 's (NASDAQ:EBAY) onlinse payment subsidiary. Its venturre backers include Menlo Park-based firms and . The otheer U.S.
company going publicd this weekis , an Austin, Texas, network managementr software maker. It plans to raise up to $139.3 million on the sale of 12.1 million It plans to trade on the New York Stockj Exchange under the symbol SolarWinds competeswith . (NYSE:HPQ) and (NASDAQ:CSCO) by offeringy lower prices tha the valle ysoftware giants. Its sales rose 51 percentf to $93.1 million last year, with net income up 64 percent to $22.3 million. Only three other U.S. companies have gone publi so farin 2009, followinfg a fourth quarter last year in which there were no domesti c IPOs.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Oradell to review pesticide use on public grounds - NorthJersey.com
ermolayenayqaked.blogspot.com
Oradell to review pesticide use on public grounds NorthJersey.com BY REBECCA D. O'BRIEN ORADELL â€" The Borough Council on Tuesday night pledged to review the use of pesticides and herbicides on public grounds, after the recent treatment of Memorial Field sparked a public outcry. Mayor Dianne Didio followed up on ... |
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Economic, natural forces buffet Hawaii glider business - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:
asabcitxit.blogspot.com
Today, President Steve “Woody” Wood hopes forces beyond his control won’t ground his businesx instead. “It’s not the economic climate, but God’s he said. “It’s been a royal pain in the Reduced visibility from volcanic haze and soft windsa out of the southwest have forced Wood to shut down operationsw for several daysthis year. Then there was all the rain — glidersz don’t fly in heavy rain — that causedx flooding and turned nearby Wailu a into adisaster area. The road to Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia goesthrough Wailua.
Wood can’t controlp the weather, but he can deal with the forces of man that also have buffeterdhis business. Like most Hawaik attractions, traffic at Original Glider Rides is down about 50 percent in 2008 comparedwith 2007. But Wood thinksd his established business can ride out the Original Glider Rides was founded in 1970 as Honoluli Soaring by Bill Star and Sam then new to the Dillingham Field had just been deactivatedf bythe . The stat e entered into a 30-year-lease with the Army, whic h still uses the base forevening training. 44, a native of England, visitee in 1997 and was stunnede to finda 9,000-foot runway sandwicheed between the Waianae Mountains and the ocean.
“If was the most beautiful glider port I had ever he said. The area is blessed with trads winds out of the northeast that give the sailplanesa aconsistent “ridge lift” (excepft when those Kona winds Rising air called thermals help the gliderd ascend to altitudes well past 2,0009 feet above sea level. Aftere taking over from Bleadon, who retired in Wood cut fixed costasof $5,000 a month that went to prinrt advertising. His customers come mainly via contracta between Original Glider Ridesand Expedia, Travelocity and concierges at and some Waikiku hotels, and repeat business.
(Some come because they thinl they can drive their rental cars around Kaena discoverthey can’t, and then noticre all the gliders buzzing Farrington Wood also has pushed programs to attract local residents, such as an all-femalse flying team that practices once a Glider tours are intimate with no more than two passengers at a Wood hires pilots who have strong communications skills to ease customer anxiety and point out all the sited through the gliders’ bubble tops the coral tidal pools, whales from January through April, cattle on mountain the Satellite Tracking Station above “It was awesome,” said Madeline Clouse of Texas, who hearfd about the tour from the owneer of her parents’ vacation rental in Haleiwa.
“I was scaredd at first, but the pilo did a good job.” Longer tourse take passengers to Pearl Harbor andDiamonr Head. It’s a peaceful without the noise of helicopter andplanee tours.
Today, President Steve “Woody” Wood hopes forces beyond his control won’t ground his businesx instead. “It’s not the economic climate, but God’s he said. “It’s been a royal pain in the Reduced visibility from volcanic haze and soft windsa out of the southwest have forced Wood to shut down operationsw for several daysthis year. Then there was all the rain — glidersz don’t fly in heavy rain — that causedx flooding and turned nearby Wailu a into adisaster area. The road to Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia goesthrough Wailua.
Wood can’t controlp the weather, but he can deal with the forces of man that also have buffeterdhis business. Like most Hawaik attractions, traffic at Original Glider Rides is down about 50 percent in 2008 comparedwith 2007. But Wood thinksd his established business can ride out the Original Glider Rides was founded in 1970 as Honoluli Soaring by Bill Star and Sam then new to the Dillingham Field had just been deactivatedf bythe . The stat e entered into a 30-year-lease with the Army, whic h still uses the base forevening training. 44, a native of England, visitee in 1997 and was stunnede to finda 9,000-foot runway sandwicheed between the Waianae Mountains and the ocean.
“If was the most beautiful glider port I had ever he said. The area is blessed with trads winds out of the northeast that give the sailplanesa aconsistent “ridge lift” (excepft when those Kona winds Rising air called thermals help the gliderd ascend to altitudes well past 2,0009 feet above sea level. Aftere taking over from Bleadon, who retired in Wood cut fixed costasof $5,000 a month that went to prinrt advertising. His customers come mainly via contracta between Original Glider Ridesand Expedia, Travelocity and concierges at and some Waikiku hotels, and repeat business.
(Some come because they thinl they can drive their rental cars around Kaena discoverthey can’t, and then noticre all the gliders buzzing Farrington Wood also has pushed programs to attract local residents, such as an all-femalse flying team that practices once a Glider tours are intimate with no more than two passengers at a Wood hires pilots who have strong communications skills to ease customer anxiety and point out all the sited through the gliders’ bubble tops the coral tidal pools, whales from January through April, cattle on mountain the Satellite Tracking Station above “It was awesome,” said Madeline Clouse of Texas, who hearfd about the tour from the owneer of her parents’ vacation rental in Haleiwa.
“I was scaredd at first, but the pilo did a good job.” Longer tourse take passengers to Pearl Harbor andDiamonr Head. It’s a peaceful without the noise of helicopter andplanee tours.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
NJ has burning issues, but few real races - NorthJersey.com
1189126qun.blogspot.com
NJ has burning issues, but few real races NorthJersey.com New Jersey lawmakers have for decades been unable to find a fix for the issue voters routinely identify as their biggest concern â€" property tax bills that now average $7576 statewide. Legislators have also failed ... |
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Banking on Volcker: Big Crisis, Big Rule - Reuters Blogs (blog)
hibleyytogoja1273.blogspot.com
Banking on Volcker: Big Crisis, Big Rule Reuters Blogs (blog) Moreover, a number of the rule's measures provide for rebuttable presumptions of non-compliance for certain types of trading activity. The Volcker Rule carves out significant exemptions in the following areas: underwriting and market-making related ... |
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Snyder signs law ending retiree benefits for future lawmakers - Detroit Free Press
valvookimakaj1362.blogspot.com
The Saginaw News - MLive.com | Snyder signs law ending retiree benefits for future lawmakers Detroit Free Press Rick Snyder signed legislation today ending retiree health benefits for some current and » |
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